Tony Mandarich, best draft pick in Packer history

If Braatz hadn't picked Mandarich, and picked Barry Sanders or Dion Sanders instead, he wouldn't have been fired andRon Wolf would not have been hired. Wolf would have been hired by another struggling team (if you remember, the Vikings were looking for a new GM at the time) & Wolf would have brought Holmgren, Favre, etc... to that team. Reggie White would NOT have signed with the Pack, and Lindy would have stayed on as coach for several more mediocre years. THANK GOD FOR TONY MANDARICH !!!

I'd say that a 6-10 record in '90 and 4-12 in '91 had more to do with Bratz's firing than one draft pick (The '89 season was a fluke - I never saw QB1 potential in Don Majkowski. '88 was a really bad joke too). The key to the turnaround wasn't the Mandarich flop ... it was the extrication of Judge Parins, as President and his hand picked Executive Committee consisting of his local buddies and cronies who didn't know squat about the game. Enter Bob Harlan who knew how much he didn't know ... and enter Ron Wolf who demanded complete control of football operations.

His 1989 season, he was the runner-up for MVP, and was just getting going.
Of course, as with so m any Packer players, an injury stopped him. A bad shoulder, for a QB, is not a good thing.

But make no mistake, he was a top-notch QB, albeit A) briefly and B) partly thanks to such a great WR in Sterling.

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Glad you said that "breifly" in there.....because he was only worth a crap for one season.....and that was skeptic in itself. Yes he did throw for 4000+ yds, but he was only at 58% completions and 27 TD and 20 INT's is hardly a steller season....and that was his BEST outting.

There's just no way of knowing what would have happened if Mandarich wasn't the pick in '89. BTW, I believe the Packers set a record in the '89 season for most one-point wins with four and won two more games by two points.

I agree with weeds, it was really what was happening at the top of the organization that mattered. I believe Wolf had interviewed with the Packers previously while Parins was still in charge - and it may have been Harlan at the time who gave him a ride to or from the airport - and Harlan learned Wolf wouldn't take the job unless he was pretty much free of interference from the president and executive board.

There's just no way of knowing what would have happened if Mandarich wasn't the pick in '89. BTW, I believe the Packers set a record in the '89 season for most one-point wins with four and won two more games by two points.

I agree with weeds, it was really what was happening at the top of the organization that mattered. I believe Wolf had interviewed with the Packers previously while Parins was still in charge - and it may have been Harlan at the time who gave him a ride to or from the airport - and Harlan learned Wolf wouldn't take the job unless he was pretty much free of interference from the president and executive board.

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Bob Harlan was elected Packer President/CEO on June 5, 1989 by Packer Executive Committtee.

Ron Wolf had interview with Packer President /CEO Bob Parins and Packer executive committteee in 1987. The decsion was to hire Tom Bratz and Packer GM instead of Ron Wolf.

Yes we could have drafted Aikman, Deion, Barry, etc... We also still could have drafted Tim Worely, Burt Grossman, Sammie Smith, or Eric Hill - all top 10 picks in that draft. There is no guarantee that we would have smartly selected one of the Hall of Famers, or even that they would have developed into a HOFer while playing for us. I won't condemn Braatz for picking a guy who ended up having thyroid issues related to steroids. Nobody else sniffed that out before the draft.

However, firing Braatz was the catalyst for the many great things that have happened to our beloved franchise ever since.

I thought Aikman was the 'girl with the curl' that year. The Pack took Mandarich because the Cowbags got the 1st pick of the draft because the Pack beat them in the last game of the year ... so they took Aikman and we took Mandarich.

Gotta say though, EVERYONE was high on Mandarich (including himself), or so it seemed. With the benefit of hindsight, we know that he was a user ... but back then, most folks outside of the locker room didn't know what a steroid was.

I thought Aikman was the 'girl with the curl' that year. The Pack took Mandarich because the Cowbags got the 1st pick of the draft because the Pack beat them in the last game of the year ... so they took Aikman and we took Mandarich.

Gotta say though, EVERYONE was high on Mandarich (including himself), or so it seemed. With the benefit of hindsight, we know that he was a user ... but back then, most folks outside of the locker room didn't know what a steroid was.

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LOL.....agree and disagree with ya weeds. Steroids were in a closet type use since the 1960's. They have only more recently become more of a media fiasco due to advances in medical testing for them.

During the 1989 season, the Packers actually played the Cowbags twice in the regular season and beat them both times -- of course, the whole league beat the Cowbags that year. It was really weird, to be playing a non-divisional team twice in one season...

Gotta say though, EVERYONE was high on Mandarich (including himself), or so it seemed. With the benefit of hindsight, we know that he was a user ... but back then, most folks outside of the locker room didn't know what a steroid was.

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The NLF started testing for steroid use in 1987.
Mandarich was drafted in 1989.
The NFL started issuing steroid suspensions in 1989.

There is no way to excuse this draft pick based on ignorance.

It's my thinking he got his NFL contract then went off the 'roids, accounting for his inability to block anybody after pancaking everybody in sight in college. There may have been a scouting flaw involved as well. I've heard it said that the Big Ten DE classes he blocked against were particularly weak, though I don't have any first hand recollection of it.

The NLF started testing for steroid use in 1987.
Mandarich was drafted in 1989.
The NFL started issuing steroid suspensions in 1989.

There is no way to excuse this draft pick based on ignorance.

It's my thinking he got his NFL contract then went off the 'roids, accounting for his inability to block anybody after pancaking everybody in sight in college. There may have been a scouting flaw involved as well. I've heard it said that the Big Ten DE classes he blocked against were particularly weak, though I don't have any first hand recollection of it.

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I don't believe that I "excused" anything but still, you're probably right...he more than likely did stop injecting after getting a contract. My point was that back then, those of us without first-hand knowledge of 'users' didn't assume that someone like Mandarich was using. ESPN was in its infancy and such things just weren't a point of first reference...and truthfully, I don't think the NFL really cared back then what these guys did so long as they didn't get caught. With the benefit of 20-20 hindsight and a heapin' helpin' of speculation, I'd venture a guess that most of the league was injecting back then.

I don't believe that I "excused" anything but still, you're probably right...he more than likely did stop injecting after getting a contract. My point was that back then, those of us without first-hand knowledge of 'users' didn't assume that someone like Mandarich was using. ESPN was in its infancy and such things just weren't a point of first reference...and truthfully, I don't think the NFL really cared back then what these guys did so long as they didn't get caught. With the benefit of 20-20 hindsight and a heapin' helpin' of speculation, I'd venture a guess that most of the league was injecting back then.

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I assume that any substance proven to enhance performance for which there is no testing or penalties will be in wide use.

I assume that HGH usage now in the NFL is as widespread as steroids ever were in the NFL or MLB, perhaps more so since the side affects are evidently not as acute.

I read a piece recently where 6% of high school athletes admit to taking PEDs while only 2% of high schools have a drug testing program. Imagine how many more high schoolers use PEDs who would not admit it, how many more in college for an untested drug like HGH where the stakes are higher, and how many more still in the NFL where tens of millions of dollars are on the line.

Holy shite... no kidding? I suppose I can see that ... as you say, 10's of millions on the line.

Lyle Alzado ... I remember reading somewhere that he was using anabolic steroids since 1968 or 1969 ... I just checked out his D.O.B. and he was born in 1949, so 19 or 20 years old ... Alzado always comes to my mind first because I was a fan of his as a youngster -- when he was with the Broncos. The guy was a madman ... we came to find out why later on, but yeah ... it's crazy stuff....

When I started playing football in highschool, everyone was telling me that if the college scouts didn't already know about you, that you weren't going to play college ball. While I know that's not true, it's the kind of things that young kids hear that force them to take more drastic measures to get known. I didn't care so it didn't influence me in any way